Transport Price, Product Differentiation and R&D in an Oligopoly

Abstract

This study incorporates transport price and endogenous product differentiation in an international oligopoly. Assuming endogenous determination of transport price based on the profit maximization of the transporter and using a three-stage game, we analyze the effect of the
degree and difficulty of product differentiation on transport price. We show that both negatively affect the endogenous transport price. The intuition of this result comes from that the positive effect of a decrease in endogenous transport price on the demand for the differentiated products is greater than the negative effect on the price.

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